You must install Natural Textures AFTER you install ModLoader, NOT BEFORE. If you install ModLoader AFTER Natural Textures, you will end up overwriting one of the Natural Textures class files, and Natural Textures will not work.

Full Installation instructions are located near the end of this post; just scroll down.

About:

As it is now, most blocks in Minecraft are generated with the same orientation (they all face the same way).

This produces what I call the “quilt effect.”

Here is a picture of some grass, which demonstrates this:

[yes, I know these pictures look old and say minecraft version 0.3, but I wrote this mod for Minecraft Beta 1.7.3, and it is up to date. ]

Can you see the quilt-like pattern? If you can't, the image below may help. The following image is the same map as shown above except that the grass blocks are now randomly orientated (randomly rotated)

The following two pictures are similar to those above, except I've replaced the grass texture with a white block with dark corners. The corner block texture isn't pretty, but I use it here only to further exemplify why the quilt phenomenon happens, and what my mod does.

Here is the same map with my Natural Textures Mod:

How to Use This Mod

You can use most any texture pack you like, with some exceptions.

Natural Textures Mod is currently not compatible with the HD texture pack fix. Do not install Natural Textures Mod if you have the HD texture pack fix installed. I will make Natural Textures Mod compatible with the HD texture pack fix in a future update.

Currently, Natural Texture Mod can be used to randomly rotate and flip textures for most of the different blocks in Minecraft, but not all of them. In future versions, I'll add the ability to randomize textures for more blocks (I have yet to add code for blocks that render textures differently than most, like flowers, saplings, water, lava, etc...)

Each texture pack can't be randomized with the same settings without some textures looking weird. Therefore, I developed a way to specify different settings spending on what texture pack you are using.

Currently, only the default texture pack has its textures randomized. Other texture packs will not have their textures randomized unless you complete the following steps:

However, the following steps are a lot of work. But if you don’t feel like doing a lot of work, you can still download and enjoy the mod; it will be just the default texture pack that gets randomized.

3. Replace all the asterisks (*) with numbers. What numbers? Well, the number you pick will determine how many different textures a certain type of block can have.

• The first number is how many texture variations the top of the block should have.
• The second number is the number of variations a side should have
• The last number is the number of variations the base should have.

For example, “grass = (8,2,8)” means that the top of any one grass block has a possible 8 textures for the top, 2 possible textures for the sides, and 8 possible textures for the base.

The maximum possible number of different textures is 8. In case you are curious, here is a picture with all 8 possible options:

The number of variations (8, 4, 2, or 0) should be determined by how symmetrical the texture is. The more symmetrical a texture is, the more variations it can have. The less symmetrical a texture is, the fewer variations it can have. Below is a picture of the different lines of symmetry you want to be looking at:

Here are some sand texture examples:

The following sand textures have 4 lines of symmetry; so you should give them 8 possible textures. In the text file, you would write “sand = (8,8,8)”

The following sand textures have 2 lines of symmetry. You would give them 4 variations. In the text file, you would write “sand = (4,4,4)”

I couldn’t find any sand textures with one line of symmetry, which would be 2 possible variations. A good example of a texture with only one line of symmetry is most of the wood plank textures out there. Don’t be fooled into thinking a wood plank texture has 2 lines of symmetry. Look at the outside edges, not at the center. If one outer edge is a dark color and the parallel edge on the other side is light color, then it is not symmetrical. Interestingly enough, Natural Textures mod would be more effective if textures were an odd number of pixels wide rather than an even number or pixels.

The following sand textures have 0 lines of symmetry. In the text file, you would either just delete the whole line or type, “sand = (0,0,0)”. No changes is the default setting, so you might as well just delete the whole “sand =” line.

Note to texture pack developers: you can make Natural Texture Mod user's lives easier if you simply include a "Natural_Texture_Settings.txt" in your texture pack zip file. It won't hurt the game in any way or affect any other mods.

Installation instructions:

You must install Natural Textures AFTER you install ModLoader, NOT BEFORE. If you install ModLoader AFTER Natural Textures, you will end up overwriting one of the Natural Textures class files and Natural Textures will not work.

Natural Textures Mod is currently not compatible with the HD texture pack fix. Do not install Natural Textures Mod if you have the HD texture pack fix installed. I will make Natural Textures Mod compatible with the HD texture pack fix in a future update.

If you have installed a version of Natural Textures Mod prior to v 0.4, I recommend deleting your Minecraft jar, updating Minecraft, reinstalling mod loader, and reinstalling any other mods that don't conflict with natural textures mod. This is because the class files that Natural Textures Mod uses have changed dramatically from v 0.1 to v 0.4. v 0.4 cannot simply over-write previous versions, since it uses completely different class files. sorry about that.

Okay, that's all the really important installation stuff. If you have installed Minecraft mods before, especially mods that use ModLoader, then you probably don't need to read the rest of this; just download the mod; you know what to do. For everyone else, here are some detailed instructions on how to install this mod:

The following instructions assume you're staring out with a completely unmodified clean version of Minecraft. If you already have ModLoader installed, skip ahead to step 7.

1. make a back-up copy of your minecraft.jar For Windows users, your Minecraft .jar is located in C:\Users\(your user name here)\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\bin

2. Download Risugami's ModLoader. hereSave it anywhere, you'll be deleting it later anyway after you copy the files out of it.

3. unzip the ModLoader zip you downloaded using software like WinZip or 7-Zip. Save the unziped folder anywhere you like.

(if you don't know what WinZip or 7-Zip are, you can download them for free (it's perfectly legal. it's okay). just Google them)

4. Open your minecraft.jar (again, you will need something like WinZip, 7-Zip, etc...). For Windows users, your Minecraft .jar is located in C:\Users\(your user name here)\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\bin

5. copy the class files from inside your ModLoader folder, and paste them inside you minecraft.jar

10. You should have copied everything you need into your Minecraft.jar. Delete the “ModLoader” and “Natural Textures” zip files and unzipped folders since, at this point, they're just junk cluttering up the computer you are using.

11. You're done. :biggrin.gif: Run Minecraft and enjoy :cool.gif:

Signature

If you want Natural Textures Mods to get noticed more consider copying and pasting this code into your signature:

v 0.5 fixes a bug in v 0.4. The maximum number of transformations for textures with either a lot of horizontal or a lot of vertical lines, without ever changing the direction of the lines from horizontal to vertical (or vis versa) is 4. Giving a texture 4 variations in the text file was supposed to use those 4 possible transformations, but instead, it was only using 2 transformations, and 1 of those 2 transformations was incorrect; it was rotating the textures so that textures with lots of horizontal or vertical lines were getting their line directions changed. This update fixes that.

Does what version 0.2 did, except that it is supposed to actually work; fails miserably; doesn't actually work. CRASH AND BUUUUURRRRRNNNNNN!!!! GAAAAAHHHHH!!!! * sob*

Also, with advise from Poersch, in v 0.3, the mod was supposed to no longer use the metadata. Instead Natural Textures Mod was supposed to generate pseudo-random numbers based a block's coordinates.... if had worked.

Doesn't actually work (actually it will work if you are running a decompiled and deobfuscated copy of minecraft, but that's unlikely). However, if it had worked, this is what it would have done:

Still requires Mod Loader. Still uses the metadata. Randomizes textures on more than just grass blocks; randomizes textures on stone, sand, gravel, and many other blocks. Randomizes textures on the side and base, not just the top. The mod now randomizes textures in old saves as they are rendered. Settings are no no longer universal. Settings can be set by placing a text document in a texture pack zip. If no text document is created, those texture packs will render normally with no randomizations.

Requires Mod Loader. Assigns grass blocks random metadata values. Uses the different metadata values to rotate the textures for the the tops of the grass blocks. Only works as new terrain is generated. Will not affect terrain generated when the mod was not installed. The same settings (types and number of rotations) are applied no matter what texture pack is being used.

Installation instructions for this OLD version:

You must install Natural Textures AFTER you install ModLoader, NOT BEFORE. If you install ModLoader AFTER Natural Textures, you will end up overwriting one of the Natural Textures class files and Natural Textures will not work.

If you have installed Minecraft mods before, especially mods that use ModLoader, then you probably don't need to read this; just download the mod; you know what to do. For everyone else, here's how to install this mod:

The following instructions assume you're staring out with a completely unmodified clean version of Minecraft. If you already have ModLoader installed, skip ahead to step 6.

1. Download Risugami's ModLoader. hereSave it anywhere, you'll be deleting it later anyway after you copy the files out of it.

2. unzip the ModLoader zip you downloaded using software like WinZip or 7-Zip. Save the unziped folder anywhere you like.

[if you don't know what WinZip or 7-Zip are, you can download them for free (it's perfectly legal. it's okay). just Google them]

3. Open your minecraft.jar (again, you will need something like WinZip, 7-Zip, etc...). For Windows users, your Minecraft .jar is located in C:\Users\[your user name here]\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\bin

4. copy the class files from inside your ModLoader folder, and paste them inside you minecraft.jar

9. you should have copied everything you need into your Minecraft.jar. Delete the “ModLoader” and “Natural Textures” zip files and unzipped folders since, at this point, they're just junk cluttering up the computer you are using.

You ARE allowed to upload YouTube videos of you playing minecraft using this software, but please add to the YouTube video description the name of this software ("Natural Textures Mod"), my minecraft forum username ("Common Sense"), and add a link/the URL of this post you are reading now. Attributing the software either in the video description or the video itself to anyone other than "CommonSense" is strictly prohibited. You must list the author as user "Common Sense" of the minecraft forums and provide the URL of this post.

You ARE allowed to link to this topic in a list of mods for minecraft. That is, if you make a list of Minecraft mods, you may link to this post. You must provide the correct author. URL shorteners, such as adfly are strictly forbidden.

You ARE allowed to post screen captures of minecraft being run with this software on any website you like, so long as you post an accompanying caption for those pictures explaining that a minecraft mod (software) was used for that picture called "Natural Textures Mod" by minecraft forum user "CommonSense".

That is the ONLY official copy. All other copies on the internet are a violation of the copyright.

THIS MOD IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' WITH NO WARRANTIES, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE. THE OWNER OF THIS MOD TAKES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES INCURRED FROM THE USE OF THIS MOD. THIS MOD ALTERS FUNDAMENTAL PARTS OF THE MINECRAFT GAME, PARTS OF MINECRAFT MAY NOT WORK WITH THIS MOD INSTALLED. ALL DAMAGES CAUSED FROM THE USE OR MISUSE OF THIS MOD FALL ON THE USER.

This mod has the potential to add the kind of detail variety that even a texture pack can't quite manage. I'm putting it in my sig. Seven days isn't a long time to stay quiet; but I hope you haven't given up on it.

Another idea similar to this one would be to create 3 or 4 separate textures that all tile together, then randomize the placement of each texture. If you combined the rotation with the randomization it would look 100% better. If you do the coding I will redo all the textures :wink.gif:

I thought of that as well, but decided against it. If I added a number of separate textures with slight variations between them, then not all textures packs would be compatible with Natural Textures. In fact, very few textures packs would be compatible; just the default textures and the occasional odd pack from a texture pack maker who took notice. Right now, Natural Textures is compatible with any texture pack, and I think that's a good thing.

Another idea similar to this one would be to create 3 or 4 separate textures that all tile together, then randomize the placement of each texture. If you combined the rotation with the randomization it would look 100% better. If you do the coding I will redo all the textures :wink.gif:

I wrote up the code necessary to randomize blocks in old saves. I also added randomization to all faces of the blocks, not just the top, and added all sorts of different blocks, not just grass. However, I haven't actually released a new version with any of these features yet, because there are some issues:

1. Different texture packs need different numbers of variations. For example, the sand in the default texture pack can have 8 different variations, and it looks good. However, about half of the community made texture packs have a zigzag pattern in the sand texture, and if you're sand is zigzag, then it can't have any variations without looking bad. Right now, the natural texture settings are what they are, with no easy way to change them. Before I release the next version of Natural Textures, I would like to have some way for the user to change the settings, depending on what texture pack they're using.

2. All the new stuff I did by directly editing Minecraft class files. Sharing modified Minecraft class files is a bad idea. I would much rather create new/separate class files that use something like modloader. However, I haven't been able to find hardly any documentation on how to write mods for Modloader. I do not know why Risugami woudl release something like Modloader and then not provide very good documentation... However, despite that, I read the javadoc and looked at Modloader decompiled as well, and I don't think modloader will do what I want it to do. ModLoader seems to let you add new blocks and new items to the game, but nothing much more than that. In order to use Natural Textures Mod to use modloader, ModLoader would have to be able to override some very important parts of the Renderblocks class (cv.class) and Block class (uu.class)... which I don't think it will. IF any one has any advise about this, I'd appreciate it. :smile.gif:

This mod has the potential to add the kind of detail variety that even a texture pack can't quite manage. I'm putting it in my sig. Seven days isn't a long time to stay quiet; but I hope you haven't given up on it.

The terrain would appear normal again. Currently, the way I have the mod written it won't mess up anyone's save files. Saves created with Natural Textures mod can be opened in unmodified Minecraft.

As an additional note, to uninstall the mod, delete the "mod_rotated_grass.class" inside your Minecraft jar, and also download a new copy of ModLoader, and replace the cv.class in your Minecraft jar with the cv.class that comes with the clean ModLoader download.